Customer Reviews

Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?

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I'll admit, I saw this book in the bookstore several times and was put off by the title, Who Killed Marilyn Monroe, frankly who cares..Then the other day I was checking to see if the new Evanovich was in and actually picked the book up and read the jacket. This is when I discovered that the Marilyn in this book is actually a donkey,in my opinion any book with a male donkey called Marilyn Monroe, multiple murders and mayhem is worth a read.

This is the first book in the series featuring PI Grace Smith, Grace is tall, blonde and perpetually broke, she has as many problems and hangups as the rest of us and is very easy to identify with. The one-liners scattered through the text are brilliant, the dialogue is well written and fast paced with frequent oportunities for a laugh. I will definitely be buying the next three books to see what else Grace manages to get herself into.

Unfortunately, she's not well known in the United States, although she deserves to be.

You can't help making some comparisons between Kinsey Milhone and Grace Smith (Liz Evans's PI) -- both are basically loners who have a few close friends, both are tight-fisted, are careless about their clothes and personal appearance, and both live in the margins, without family ties to speak of. But Grace Smith is very much her own character -- she's funny, sharp in her comebacks, has an edge to her, and inhabits a very different world from a wealthy California coastal town. Grace lives in a seaside town in England -- a town that used to be a resort but now only gets weekend visitors. And Liz creates a world around Liz that seems real -- like you've been there and can see it all, see the people, see the greasy spoon restaurant she's always cadging meals at, see the lonely beach off-season.

This story is about a donkey -- Marilyn Monroe -- who is killed. The police don't want to waste time on this, so the donkey's owner hires Grace Smith to find out who killed Marilyn Monroe. Grace is no fool and suspects it may be tied to a killing of a human that happened about the same time in the same general area -- and so her investigation follows that line. She quickly discovers who was killed (the police don't have a name yet) and begins to investigate who that person was and what the motive was.

My only regret is that I have only one more book to read in the Liz Evans series. I hope she keeps writing them, and I hope these books become more readily available in the U.S. so that others can get to know Smithie and her sharp British wit.

Marilyn Monroe fans -- beware!
This book has nothing to do with the Marilyn
Monroe--actress and legend--that we know and
love.
The Marilyn Monroe of the title is a donkey,
and the author is a _______ (fill in the blank).